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Round jelly-like bumps on new Otocinclus

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Greetings to all! This is my first post!

I bought 4 Otocinclus for my 75 gal tank yesterday, and noticed after I got home that one has some sort of disease.

The disease causes round bumps all much of the Oto's body and fins, mostly near the dorsal fins, the nose, and the tail and tailfin. I don't know how to describe the bumps... almost jelly-like, or slimy. You could say the bumps look as if they were like scales that have gotten really swollen. On the fins they look like jelly-like blobs.

The thing that comes to mind off the top of my head is Gas bubble disease. I'd start searching there and see if that's a possibility.

This looks pretty severe... either the fish wasn't showing these symptoms at the fish store, or you didn't check the fish in the bag before you left. I'd like to think you'd have noticed this kind of issue before you walked out the door.

Hi Trillianne, thanks for the response. No, I did not notice this when I was at the petstore (which was really dark). That's a good reminder that I should check more carefully in the future. I acclimated by floating the bag about 20 minutes, then slowly adding water. The other 3 Oto's are doing fine. I'm pretty sure the fish had the disease before I bought him.

Jeez, I've never seen anything like that. I cannot say I've seen gas bubble disease before but this looks severe. Fungus would be my first guess and would imagine that this is a prime candidate for euthanasia. I'm surprised you purchased a fish that looked like this (always look at what you're getting when they're in the bag - and before you get to the till).

Thanks for the input everyone. Unfortunately the fish died this morning. I believe it was either a fungus or gas bubble disease (which would be logical since the tank has tons of plants in it). I will be more careful to look at the fish before I buy them next time!! Lesson learned!

Plants canNOT harm fish through 'bubble issues'. Not possible. Fungus is possible and often relates to poor water conditions - esp. excessive food waste. Relative to bubble disease it only can occur with a sudden increase in water temperature. Unless that happened, it is not that condition. That can be totally avoided by only adding fish after you match the water temps between the tank and bag holding the new fish. Or, it happens when adding hot water to a colder aquarium. It has zero to do with outside air in the water (bubbles.)

Last edited by Cermet; 02-10-2013 at 08:32 PM.

Knowledge is fun(damental)

A 75 gal with eight Discus, fake plants, and a lot of wood also with sand substrate. Clean up crew is down to just two Sterba's Corys. Filters: continuous new water flow; canister w/UV, in-tank algae scrubber!! Finally, junked the nitrate removal unit from hell.